Delegation Of Authority – It Will Hurt At First Before It Gets Better

2019-05-15T03:04:41+10:00David Jenyns

Most entrepreneurs start out doing everything themselves. You become the Jack or Jill of all trades. Soon, there comes the time when you need more people power and you have to bring someone on board the team. Enter into the world of delegation of authority and giving your team permission to do tasks you used to do. Only you find yourself spending more time doing the “”correcting”” as your team gets familiar with the task you used to do.

Is anybody guilty of drive-by delegation? I know I am, all the time. Could you just do? Great. Take the time to delegate properly. Take the time to coach and mentor that bit of work when it comes back. Don’t just say, I could have done this faster myself, because we’re all done that. Then you just end up in the trap of, well I will just do it myself.

Then there is the task filter. This is what I would like you to do in a perfect world, and I know no one will do this, but I’ll say it anyway. Over the course of the next two weeks, keep a list of all of the work you do. Then, in a couple of weeks time, plot those tasks on here. Your job is to get rid of all of this. That is where time drags or they are things you hate doing. If you take the time, your pain is going to go down over time.

It is painful at the beginning, granted. But they’re going to get better. They’re going to love that. Their mastery of what they do improves. Again, it is that unique ability thing. Those specialists down the bottom, I want to hire a specialist who loves doing that.

I’ve bagged bookkeepers already, but some people love doing books. It drives me insane. That was the first thing I outsourced in my business. I should not be doing paperwork of any kind. But some people love it. Some people love cleaning. Awesome. Stop feeling guilty about cleaning the house and hire a cleaner. Some people love cleaning. All of those specialties in the business, all of those things you don’t like to do, somebody out there loves it.

We have this guilt that I’m somehow demeaning them to give them that work I don’t like. I’ll just do it myself. I did that for years with my team. I’m not going to send someone down to pick up my shirt at the drycleaners. I feel bad if I do that. So I’m just going to go down at lunchtime and do it myself.

But my time to the business is worth $500 an hour. They’re employed at $35 an hour. Send them down to the store. Part of that too, and part of the task filter is thinking about the dollars per hour. Not only is it the work that brings you joy but what is the work that is worth your time? What is the work that is $500 an hour work?